1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in a camera which writes information onto a magnetic memory portion of a film.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,322 relates to a type of camera in which a film having a magnetic memory portion is used and information such as year, month, and day, shutter speed and aperture value can be written on or, if necessary, read from this magnetic memory portion by means of a magnetic head, or information written in advance such as the ISO and the specified number of film frames is read from the same.
Also, it is known that the various kinds of data, which are recorded on the magnetic memory portion as mentioned above, are imprinted together with an image such as a person's image, if desired, when the film is printed.
W.O. 90-04204 discloses a detailed way to record the magnetic information, using different kinds of indices, commonly known as IDs (IDENTIFICATIONS), corresponding to different kinds of magnetic information. W.O. 90-04254 discloses that end marks are attached after the respective magnetic information. "CAMERART SEPTEMBER 1990" discloses examples of the contents of the magnetic information and examples of the IDs.
As a practical matter, the kinds of IDs must be limited, because the information to be recorded on the magnetic memory portion of the film must be recorded on a very small space of the magnetic memory portion of the film.
Additionally, the kinds of IDs must be limited also because when the date recorded on the magnetic memory portion are imprinted, their printing positions and areas respectively occupy different specific spaces on the print.
However, there is a case where it is desired that the information with which the IDs are not associated are recorded on the magnetic memory portion of the film. In this case, user inputting data to be associated with an ID enables selected voluntary characters to be recorded on the magnetic memory portion of the film by means of a keyboard, for example, from outside of a camera. However, when time data is recorded on the magnetic memory portion of the film by the keyboard operation, the keyboard operation must be repeated whenever the time changes which is very inconvenient.